Weekend Adventures!

It all started out so calm and peaceful but it sure turned out to be a weekend to remember!
Friday evening we had our old neighbours and friends, Kevin and Joyce, over for a games night. We really enjoy playing Settlers of Catan with them and they have the Seafarers addition so that makes it more exciting. After going to bed late that night, I had to be up bright and early the next morning to help out at our school's garage sale. I got rid of some of my own stuff there too, as I had just gone through a lot of our things recently. It's amazing how much 'junk' you accumulate in such short a time.
Saturday afternoon we headed to my brother and sister-in-law's (Jeff and Eileen) house for an afternoon of socializing and playing. They live on a hobby farm so the girls had lots of room to roam and play with their seven cousins (of which four are girls). They jumped on the trampoline, played in the tree fort, swam in the hot tub, rode on the horse and relaxed by the campfire. Bethany gave us all quite a scare while we were there as with all the busyness we couldn't find her. We assumed she was still outside when all the kids went into the house to put their swimsuits on but the kids said she wasn't with them. This got me panicky as their yard is very large with lots of trees and danger spots. I was also worried that she had maybe walked out to the main road. After about ten minutes had passed one of my nieces found her, happy as a lark, in her parent's bedroom with the door closed. Apparently, the monkey was looking for her bathing suit as she was repeatedly saying, "Suit, Suit!" when we got to her. Needless to say, after all that excitement the kids all fell fast asleep that evening when we headed home. Of course I forgot my camera so no pictures to document our fun!
Sunday was a cold and miserable day so it was great to have a quiet day. We did no socializing and had a nice day re-energizing our spiritual and physical bodies.
Seeing as Monday was a holiday and the forecast was for great weather, we thought it would be a great opportunity to take out the canoe for the day. We decided on Rockwood Conservation Area (near Guelph) as it is small and calm but very picturesque. We also wanted to introduce Genevieve to the canoe so we can take her on some canoe trips this summer. What a nice little lake with so many inlets and bays to check out.




We canoed to the other side of the lake to check out some really neat ruins from an old flour mill built in the late 1800s. We then headed back to the canoe launch area so we could enjoy a barbecue lunch of hotdogs and sausages close to the playground. On the way there Genevieve decided to test her swimming abilities and jumped right out of the canoe! Colin had the leash on her, so he was able to hold on to the end of it while he ensured she was able to doggy paddle. He then rescued her from the cold water and let her dry on the shore - but she shivered for about an hour after that!



Colin had to bring the van down to the canoe launch so while he did that I watched the girls play in the sand and water. Even though it was sunny out it was still quite chilly. This never seems to stop kids from going near the water though! They had fun digging sand and putting their feet in the water. And then came the second water rescue of the day! If I hadn't already been paranoid about losing Bethany at my brother's house this incident could have left me scarred for life about the safety of my children. As Colin was getting the van, I heard a man yelling from the other side of the lake outlet (about 5o feet across) and pointing at some bright orange buoys. These buoys rope off a small water falls that lead into a creek out of the lake. I had just gone down to the water's edge to grab my water bottle when I saw a child flailing his/her arms in the water by the large buoys. I ran over there and saw that he was definitely in trouble, and I was jumping in carefully (it was very rocky in this area) to rescue him when out of no where Colin jumps past me and grabs the kid out. The boy was ten feet off shore in about ten feet of water in a no swimming zone, and was completely under and starting to sink when Colin grabbed him. He was very incoherent when we took him out and we had concerns about hypothermia. By this time a park guy was around and radioed the superintendent to head this way. The funny thing was that his parents were no where in sight and no one came running from anywhere looking for him. He was about seven years old so there should have been some supervision. Anyway, he was not responding to any of our questions even though he was conscious. Park protocol is probably to always call 911 when something of this nature happens so... in come the paramedics, fire department, more park staff and police. What a scene! The girls were mesmerized by all the action and Colin was shivering as he was soaked and had no change of clothes. As is turns out, the boy was autistic and had wandered away from his group that was having a picnic. The counsellor that was looking after him had gone to the park office to report a missing child and hadn't thought of looking in the beach area. She was very distressed and upset when she came upon the scene as this was her charge. Imagine telling his parents that their child almost drowned while in your care. After being checked out by the paramedics, he was wrapped up in a warm blanket and I'm sure they headed home. That was the end of it and we finally had a chance to pack up our things and get our barbecue lunch started (2:30 pm). The park superintendent was very thankful for Colin's rescue efforts and rewarded our whole family with ice cream and popsicle treats. There may be more follow up, as Colin had to give his name and number to three sources; the park superintendent, police and paramedics. We hope that the group home that this boy came from doesn't get into too much trouble about this all but instead learns from this near fatal accident.
We had many talks with our kids about water safety the rest of the afternoon and couldn't stress enough the importance of staying close to Dad and Mom. We know all things are in God's hands but being as we are human, it sure strikes close to home when we witness something like this. What if this was one of our children? Thanks be to God for sparing our lives (and this boy's) on this wonderful, but busy, weekend!


The girls enjoying their free popsicle treat!

P.S. I think this is the longest post I've ever written! Okay, I'll stop writing now :)